The subject matter disclosed herein relates to feed injectors, and, more particularly, to feed injectors for gasifiers.
A variety of combustion systems employ feed injectors to inject a fuel into a combustion chamber. For example, an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant includes a gasifier with one or more feed injectors. The feed injectors supply a fuel, such as an organic feedstock or a coal slurry, into the gasifier along with oxygen and steam to generate a syngas. In general, combustion or reaction occurs downstream from the feed injectors. However, a flame and/or heat from combustion in close proximity to the feed injectors can reduce the life of the feed injectors, particularly if the feed injectors exceed certain temperatures. For example, the feed injector may be subject to increasingly greater temperatures toward the tip and/or other locations close to the flame. The lives of feed injectors may be reduced by such high temperatures, even when existing cooling techniques are used.